Pitbulls and Breed Bans: I've Got My Back Up

This morning, I opened the paper and read this column by Kevin Cowherd in the Sun. I usually love him, but this column was so clearly wrong that I felt compelled to send him an email.

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Dear Mr. Cowherd,

I am usually a fan of yours, but your column today on "dangerous" dog breeds was way off base.

I've been a vet tech for ten years and a pet owner for my entire life. My family owned a pitbull, and for fifteen years, he was the most loyal, loving friend I ever had. I was never afraid of him, the neighborhood children loved him, and he never showed any signs of aggression, not even once.

You've heard all the arguments about blaming the owner, not the breed, and I know you're weary of hearing them, but they're TRUE. The animal hospital I work at is in Baltimore City and we see a lot of pitbulls. Yes, some of them are scary and some of them are aggressive. But the vast majority are sweet animals that belong to loving families.

I suggest you read this article on breed bans by Rebecca Skloot, science writer and former vet tech.

The most notable parts of her piece are the statistics on breed ownership, dog fighting and criminal records. Check out her stats on temperament tests too. Since I'm on the subject of statistics, did you know that the majority of dog bites to children are by dogs the child knows? Family pets, friend's pets, the dog next door. Cases where a dog goes out of it's way to bite, unprovoked, are uncommon. No one wants to hear about maimed children, but the fact is that dog attacks are not nearly as common as the media would have us think.

In my ten years as a tech and 4 years before that as a pet groomer, I have never been bitten by a pitbull or a rottweiler. I've been bitten by plenty of small dogs, and had plenty of near misses with labs and golden retrievers, the "All American dogs." You can make any dog mean. At a practice I worked at years ago, a couple had a Bichon Frise. The man didn't want a "sissy" dog, so he kicked it around until it was so vicious, neither owner could touch it and the staff at the hospital had to sedate it for even the most simple procedures to avoid being attacked.

There's nothing wrong with being nervous or afraid of dogs, and it's smart to be cautious around any strange dog, be it a pitbull or a chihuahua. But I believe that when a person gets a pet, they have a responsibility to take care of it and provide it with a loving home, and the only way to truly crack down on dog attacks is to target the bad owners and not the dogs. If you take away the breed, do you think the abusive owners will be automatically reformed? You can bet they'll continue to mistreat others animals, their children, their fellow human beings.

You'd think that as a journalist, you would be committed to providing the public with the truth, but your prejudices come through loud and clear in this column.

I have two small children and I want to raise them in a world where people treat their dogs humanely not because the government bans breeds that can be fought, but because it's the right thing to do.

Usually A Fan